The present invention relates to a microcontact structure provided for implantation in a mammal, in particular in a human being, and for contacting nerve tissue in the visual system. More precisely, the microcontact structure is to be arranged for contacting the ganglion cells in the retina around the fovea, on the one hand, or for contacting the visual cortex (area VI).
Losses of sight triggered or acquired by a genetic defect may inter alia have two causes. The first cause is the destruction of the photoreceptor layer in the retina following which impacting photons are not converted into corresponding stimulation of the ganglion cells. In the case of these symptoms, the ganglion cells are only partially affected so an external stimulation of the ganglion cells still present can generate visual perception. For some time, developments have been carried out on this basis, comprising the implantation of a microcontact structure for contacting the ganglion cells.
The second important cause of loss of sight in the present context may lie in an interruption of these signal transmissions between the ganglion cells and the region in the brain responsible for visual perception or in faulty operation of the ganglion cells themselves. For these symptoms, implants are also being developed in which a microcontact structure is directly in contact with the visual cortex, more precisely area VI of the visual cortex, where it generates visual perception owing to electrical stimulation.
The previously known microcontact structures substantially consist of a carrier material carrying electrically conductive, pin-shaped or needle-shaped contact elements on one side which rise above the plane of the carrier film. Microcontact structures of this type are known, for example from U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,109,844, 5,159,927, 5,411,540, DE 19525570 A1 or EP 0460320 B1. In all these microcontact structures, the individual contacts are uniformly distributed, i.e. with a constant surface density, on the surface of the implant. The surface density is approximately in the range of up to 20 contacts per mm2. It has previously been assumed here that a surface density of the microcontacts which is as high as possible is desirable to increase the visual resolution.
It has been shown in practice that this concept is just as problematical as the previously known microcontact structures. One problem is that with the increasing number of microcontacts there is a corresponding increase in the external arrangement feeding these microcontacts. Each individual microcontact is fed according to present concepts by a separate channel of an encoder. The boundary conditions of this external device are the dimensions, the energy consumption and finally also the costs. When a certain number of microcontacts can be fed by a given external supply unit, visual perception which is as optimum as possible should be produced with this number of microcontacts. The present distribution of microcontacts with constant surface density is disadvantageous for this as it does not take into account that a region of the central visual field should be evaluated more highly for the recognition of certain objects than the surrounding edge region.
Furthermore, the tissue to be contacted by the microcontacts is not constructed in such a way that a specific spacing of two points from one another on the tissue corresponds in every region of the visual field to the same angular spacing based on the visual axis. Rather, it is the case that in the case of the ganglion cells of the retina around the region of the sharpest vision, called the fovea, no ganglion cells at all are initially present, then at a slight radial spacing from the central point of the fovea there is a great density of ganglion cells which leads to a crater-like curvature at the edge of the fovea. The layer of ganglion cells becomes thinner adjacent to this region.
If this region is occupied by a microcontact structure having a constant surface density of the microcontacts, the microcontacts in the center of the fovea do not reach any ganglion cells. The channels of the external supply device connected to these microcontacts remain without a physiological function. Very many ganglion cells are present per surface unit in the region of the “crater edge” of the fovea, so for a given number of ganglion cells relatively few microcontacts are available. The surface density of the ganglion cells then decreases in the outer region, while the surface density of the microcontacts remains the same. The number of microcontacts available for a specific number of ganglion cells therefore increases.
These physiological facts lead to there being relatively few microcontacts available precisely in the region responsible for the central visual field and the region of sharpest vision, namely the “crater edge” of the fovea, while in the surrounding region which plays a relatively subordinate part in visual perception, there are a proportionally large number of microcontacts available. The result achieved with a microcontact structure of this type with constant surface density is therefore not optimum, either with respect to the visual impression achieved which under-represents the most important part of the visual field, or with respect to the most effective use possible of the external supply device.
The same is true for contacting the visual cortex. The association between the surface of corresponding visual field sites on the brain surface and the visual field depicted is not linear there either. A microcontact structure with a constant surface density of the microcontacts would also lead here to an under-representation of the central region of the visual field based on the physiological evaluation of the visual field.
It is therefore the object of the present invention to provide a microcontact structure which allows contacting of the nerve tissue while taking into account the non-linear association between tissue surface and the visual field and which also allows, in the case of a limited number of available channels to connect them with the tissue in such a way that the physiologically more highly valued part of the visual field is depicted with a greater number of microcontacts than the less valued part of the visual field.